A powerful, inspiring day today-had a little what I used to call 'Rendlesham moment' which obviously isn't any more but those who know what one is know what I mean and if you don't it's a kind of emotional WOW moment where you just think 'that's spot on, amazing and needs to be recognised...' I've said before that 'I Coriander' is one of the best stories I've ever read. It really is. I love the book and I was very proud to have it signed by the author herself- Sally Gardner-at the UKLA 'Finding your voice' conference. I was proud to be there with Storyshack ( a year on from its beginnings) and inspired by all the speakers I heard, particularly Sally's impassioned plea for educators to STOP this data driven business and help children find their imagination and creativity through education. She really is worth hearing as she also speaks movingly about her awful experiences as a child who had dyslexia and was, deemed to be (in her words) thick as.... She's inspiring in many ways and also makes me think about what our schools are like for children who struggle to read and write but have so many other talents. Indeed for children who are defined by the ever increasingly narrow curriculum and therefore considering themselves to be failures what are we doing to them? What on earth are we creating for the future. What about children's imagination, their hopes, their DREAMS? We're fools if we consider them to be unimportant. I truly believe that. We are destroying what we know to be right. Somehow Mr. Gove and Ofsted have convinced even the previously child focused head teachers that it is correct to rob children of imagination-to clip their wings. That it's not important. So where, therefore, do they expect the next generation of thinkers and dreamers to come from? Where do they think our engineers, our doctors, our lawyers, our writers, artists, teachers will come from if we can't allow children to ever dream or imagine what their future will hold. If they can't see pictures, if they can't think creatively? If you don't know the power to imagine to be honest you're not going to be able to ever follow your dreams. The girl I saw on Sport Relief yesterday who opened an orphanage for special needs children having been helped by that charity 15 years ago for example. We must keep reading and we must keep imagining - it's more crucial than ever. We all need to do it, we all have a right to do it.......THE RIGHT TO IMAGINE

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Sarah Gallagher

Avid reader, sometimes a headteacher AND founder of Story shack. A place where you can release your imagination and see where it takes you....readingwritingbook makingplayingbecause everyone deserves to imagine and create